Route guidance strategies revisited: Comparison and evaluation in an asymmetric two-route traffic system

TL;DR

This paper compares eight route guidance strategies in an asymmetric two-route traffic system, finding that only the mean velocity feedback strategy effectively equalizes travel times and approaches user optimality.

Contribution

It evaluates prevalent strategies in a more general asymmetric scenario, highlighting the effectiveness of mean velocity feedback for user optimality.

Findings

Only mean velocity feedback strategy equalizes travel time.

Other strategies fail to relate feedback parameters to travel time.

Results suggest using mean velocity feedback for optimal traffic management.

Abstract

To alleviate traffic congestion, a variety of route guidance strategies has been proposed for intelligent transportation systems. A number of the strategies are proposed and investigated on a symmetric two-route traffic system over the past decade. To evaluate the strategies in a more general scenario, this paper conducts eight prevalent strategies on a asymmetric two-route traffic network with different slowdown behaviors on alternative routes. The results show that only mean velocity feedback strategy is able to equalize travel time, i.e., approximate user optimality; while the others fail due to incapability of establishing relations between the feedback parameters and travel time. The paper helps better understand these strategies, and suggests mean velocity feedback strategy if the authority intends to achieve user optimality.